June
25, 2006 - Will
Wright wants you to play God. He and his development
team at Maxis have been responsible for some of the
most involving life simulators ever released in gaming,
including Sim City and the Sims. Now, Wright will
be giving you the opportunity to create a lifeform
of your own and evolve it from single-cell organisms
in the primordial ooze to space travel and exploration.

Spore,
named so because it begins with the smallest order
of life and spreads outward, will feature gameplay
that promises to eclipse the scale and creativity
of all Wrights previous efforts. Instead of
managing a human existence, from managing a career
to managing a bathroom schedule, Maxis will put you
beyond the realm of known life and allow you to create
whatever creature you desire and make their world
your own.

To
begin, you will obviously choose the features of your
new life form with the aid of an incredibly intuitive
creature creator. Virtually anything one can think
to create is possible, from a six-legged giraffe with
purple skin to blue bi-pedal canines with scorpion
tails. Whats even nicer about this creature
creator is the intuitive scheming and coloring that
is achieved with the different skin types, from scales
to fur or just plain hide. As you tinker with the
various features of your creature it will affect different
statistics from intelligence to strength and agility,
all very necessary attributes in the early survival
in your new world.

These
new creatures will then be advanced through five different
stages of existence: Cell, Creature, Tribe, City,
and Space. At E3, Wright previewed the title by showing
the Creature and Space stages of existence, highlighting
various gameplay elements such as evolution and exploration.
During the Creature stage, we witnessed the demo illustrate
mating and food consumption as ways to attain evolution
points, which could then be used to add new features
and attributes to the next generation of the fledgling
civilization. If survival is an issue early on, adding
defensive mechanisms such as sharp claws will work
to ensure the next generation will stand a better
chance against predators. As you continue to evolve
these creatures, the objective is to attain enough
intelligence that they will begin forming tribal units
and organizing more efficiently, leading you to the
Tribe stage.

Ending
the preview, Wright showed off the final stage of
evolution in Spore. Space exploration will be attainable
late in the creatures development, and limitless
possibilities are present, especially given the games
natural tendency to build community. Getting your
civilization in space and you can visit other created
worlds via an internet connection to see what other
creatures are out there and how they treat the rest
of the universe. User-created spaceships will be available
to build as your own if you wish, but real space explorers
will be the ones crafting their ships for journeys
in diplomacy or supremacy across the cosmos. With
healthy community support, Spores possibilities
and replay value could be outrageous.

Assuming
this title is a hit when it releases, millions of
PC gamers across the world will be blazing their own
paths in their user-created existences and populating
the virtual world with creatures that are as bizarre
looking as that Ugliest Dog champion.
Be prepared for it when Spore releases to PC late
this year.